Travel Masters Podcast
Founded by travel goddess and CEO of Small World Big Fun, Cindy Minor and sales training expert Morris Sims, The Travel Masters Learning Community (click the link and join us there too) is here to help you grow in the world of travel and achieve greatness!
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Travel Masters Podcast
Elevate Your Travel Agency with Effective Planning
This episode emphasizes the crucial transition from planning to implementation for travel professionals looking to achieve their 2025 goals. Listeners are guided through defining their ideal traveler, developing effective marketing strategies, and executing their strategic action plans to realize their business aspirations.
• Importance of commitment to implementation
• Defining your Strategic Action Plan (SAP)
• Four components of an effective SAP
• Identifying and understanding your ideal traveler
• Choosing effective marketing platforms
• Utilizing personal observation for networking
• Crafting an engaging elevator pitch
• Implementing email marketing strategies
• Leveraging event marketing opportunities
• Building an effective online presence
• Call to action: "Join the VIP waiting list for our free summit to learn more strategies for your success!"
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Welcome to the Travel Masters podcast. We're here to help travel advisors and travel agency owners get what they really want from their business. I'm Morris Sims and I'm going to be your host for our podcast. I'm an ex-chemical engineer turned life insurance agent. I got to tell you selling life insurance was a lot more fun for me than being an engineer. After a few years, they asked me to teach other people how to do what I was doing. And well, long story short, we wound up in New York City for 20 years. That was quite a change for a young Alabama boy. I retired after 20 years as the vice president and chief learning officer, where my team and I trained over 12,000 agents and their managers to be independent business owners and sales professionals. Now I'm not one to stop working, so I started my own business and I was blessed to find a sweet spot with travel professionals that I was able to help. Now I've got several travel agency consulting clients and I'm the co-founder of the Travel Masters Learning Community, where we provide opportunities for travel professionals to become more effective, efficient and to get what they want from their business.
Speaker 1:On this podcast, I'm going to be interviewing guests that I believe are going to have a message that can be of help to you. Our travel professional community and I'll do some solo episodes as well with some other stuff that I really think can help you in your business. So, with all that said, hey, let's get this party started with today's episode. What do you say? Hey, welcome to the Travel Masters podcast. And I got to tell you thank you for listening and thanks for engaging with us as well. We're doing this for you and it really does make a difference when we hear from you. So, thank you very much for listening, and I'm your host. My name is Morris Sims. Hey, let's get practical. What do you do to implement your plan for 2025? And, by the way, happy New Year. Hope you had a great holiday season.
Speaker 1:We can talk about planning for hours, we can put stuff down on paper, we can put in a three-ring binder, but until we actually take action and do all those things that we plan to do well, nothing in our business is going to get any better. So, plan all you want, but it's absolutely useless without commitment to implementation, and I say commitment because the best intentions don't get us anywhere until we actually do something about it. So, in this series, we're going to share with you specific steps that we think you should take to actually put your strategic action plan into action. Put it into play, make it happen. This is what it takes to make all those things that you planned actually occur. And when they do, that's what's going to make your business better. That's what's going to increase your revenue. That's what's going to give you more free time to be able to go out and do the things you want to do. All right, why don't we start with a quick review?
Speaker 1:What is a strategic action plan or an SAP? Well, your SAP is the list of things that you're going to do to implement the plan, to get what you want from your business. So it's not just become more visible. It is specific action steps that you can take right now. Okay, so example, here's one I'm going to call these radio stations www, dot, whatever it is these radio stations and these TV stations to find out how to become a guest on their show to talk about travel in Europe, or travel to Europe on a shoestring budget, or ocean cruises, or whatever. I'm going to call these particular people on this date to make this happen, and that's what you need for a real action step. Okay, now your SAP is extremely specific and extremely practical.
Speaker 1:There are four parts of any good SAP. The first is marketing how to have your business become more visible to your ideal traveler. Number two is sales what, specifically, is your entire planning process and planning for travel process? And that includes getting their payment for their trip and using the best words and language, because words and language matter. The third part is administration. How are you going to handle the running of the business when you're not marketing and you're not booking specific trips? How are you going to administer your business, make sure everything goes right? And the fourth part we're talking about today, and that's called implementation. How do you make it all happen? What specific actions do you need to take to be able to get what you want from your business? So today, let's start with implementing the marketing section of your strategic action plan. Now remember, marketing is attracting people to you and your business. It's not about who you know. It is about who knows you. So there are four steps inside a complete marketing plan.
Speaker 1:You might think of this as four specific questions you need to answer in order to build your marketing plan. You ready, here we go. Number one who is your ideal traveler. What are their characteristics? Number two which platforms or channels are you going to use in your marketing plan? And number three when will you do what? That's a good, straight question, isn't it? When will you do what? In other words, what are you going to do? And when you figure that all out and you get that all in your plan, you have to put it on a calendar. When are you going to actually take action? That's the key. And number four what content are you going to share on those platforms? So there you go, let's get started.
Speaker 1:First off, who is your ideal traveler? Your IT? Your ideal traveler is someone you find easy to work with. You don't have to work with jerks, and you can say yes or no when somebody calls you and says I want your help. So why not target people that you want to work with, and certainly not the jerks, right? Yes, I'm trying to be nice the jerks? What travel do you like to do? What travel are you passionate about? Europe, river cruises, weddings and honeymoon travel, walt Disney properties? Come on. Why plan travel that you have no desire to work with? If you hate going on ocean cruises, maybe four times a year, that four-time-a-year cruising couple is not your ideal client. You deserve to work on planning travel that you love to work with.
Speaker 1:Now, it's always good to know what you want, and it's also good to know what you do not want. So who is not your ideal traveler? Give it some thought. Who do you not want to work with? What travel do you really not want to have to plan?
Speaker 1:Now here's a side point for you. Just because we define the characteristics of your ideal traveler and we identify who is not your ideal traveler, it does not limit who you're going to work with. If somebody asks if you will provide them with alligators for their trip up the Nile River, go get them an alligator, but you don't go looking for alligator hunters to plan their trips right. So just realize it doesn't limit you If somebody comes in and asks you to do something and it has nothing to do with what your ideal travel planning business has to do. If it's planning travel, you can work with that and you can work with somebody that does like to do that. So your ideal traveler defines where you're going to put your attention and your focus. It's where you're going to spend your time and your money and where you're going to put your attention and your focus. It's where you're going to spend your time and your money and where you're going to become professionally and personally involved.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, let's get practical. In each section that we're going to talk about, I'll say that. I'll say, okay, let's get practical. And this is that list of things that you need to decide on for your ideal traveler in this case, but where you'll need to decide on whatever we're talking about. Okay, this is where you write it down and decide I'm going to do this or I'm not going to do this. Schedule it, put it on your marketing calendar, put it on your regular calendar and then take action. Then just do it. Nike, that sucker, that's the best thing Nike ever came up with. Just do it.
Speaker 1:Here's how you can identify your ideal traveler. Number one get a pen and paper. All right, use your computer if you really have to, but there's something about pen and paper that just makes it work that much better. Secondly brainstorm the characteristics of your ideal traveler. So that means take time to write down everything that you can think of your ideal traveler. So that means take time to write down everything that you can think of about that question who is my ideal traveler. Write down everything you can think of. Just let it flow. Don't try and filter it or make decisions as you're writing. Well, I'm not going to put that down there because, no, put it down there anyway. We'll filter this whole mess in a minute, okay, but for right now, just write it down, let it flow and keep going until the flow stops. And when it stops, take a break and try again. You'd be surprised what will happen Then.
Speaker 1:Narrow your list down to the characteristics for your ideal traveler. In other words, once you've got it up there, you've gotten done. The flow has stopped. Now go back and look at the list and let's get rid of the ones that are not a part of what you want your ideal traveler description to be. And when you get that narrowed down, then out of the best group of the best of them, choose the one that you think is the absolute best, the one that's the top, the one that you really want to work with. Let it simmer for a little while, maybe overnight. Look at it tomorrow with a fresh mind, a fresh eye, and now choose the specific characteristics, the specific picture of your ideal traveler, the description of that person that you really love to work with, that you want to work with, that you want to build your business on. Make sure you get a clear picture of that. All right. Number three Based on that clear picture and some research, then you need to answer these questions when do your ideal travelers gather?
Speaker 1:Where are they in a group, or are they? Where is that group now? What do they like to do? What do people that are in your ideal traveler group like? What do they like to do? Well, they're all big golfers, hmm, okay, let's talk about going to Scotland, right? What do they like to do? And then, how do they communicate among the group?
Speaker 1:If they are in a group and it is possible, your ideal travelers are not in any particular formal group but if they are, how do they communicate among each other? Do they have an email list? Do they do email marketing with each other? Do they have a membership that they? How do they communicate? Because if you can become a part of that communication chain, that helps tremendously. So those three questions where do your, where do your ideal travelers gather, what do they like to do and how do they communicate with each other? Because we're going to get in touch with your ideal traveler, right? So figure out an answer for each one Specifically, write it down. What are your answers to those three questions? Those questions and the answers are going to guide your decisions about what you specifically are going to do to attract more ideal travelers to your business. So, to complete the ideal traveler part of this work, decide on your ideal traveler and write a complete description, the answers to the questions that we just went through, the characteristics and the differentiating things that make your ideal traveler unique. Write it down, get it concise, put it somewhere that you can refer to it and look at it, because you're going to want to. This is something that's important.
Speaker 1:Now, where are your ideal travelers located and where do they gather? We talked about that, right. Do they work together? Do they play together? Are they all part of a big, huge family? Is there a specific community or specialty group that they're a part of? Are they all a part of the same church, the same worship community? What do they like to do besides travel? Well, they like to play golf, right, and, as I say, let's plan a trip to Scotland. How do they communicate among their groups? In other words, how do you get into that communication chain and then decide on all this and put it down. All right, you now know your ideal traveler. The next question that we're going to have to answer is how will you communicate with them to attract them to your business? In other words, what platform are you going to use to get their attention and to help them know you? There are at least five different platforms, or you might call them communication channels, but you've got to choose which one you're going to use to get information to your ideal traveler and others. So let's talk about each of those five channels and then you get to decide which one you're going to use in your plan. All right, you ready.
Speaker 1:First off, there's social media. It's first. Only because I wrote it down first in my notes, it's not my first choice for a communication channel. For some reason, a lot of people think it's the answer to marketing for small businesses of all kinds and in all places. It's the one thing that you have. Well, if you have social media, that's not something you can just stop with. Some folks think, if you have social media, you don't need anything else. But if that's what you're thinking is, my father-in-law was famous for saying you are wrong. What you're thinking is my father-in-law was famous for saying you are wrong.
Speaker 1:Social media is not the only place you need to be visible. It is a platform that we should all be using, and we should all be using it wisely. By that I mean that we can't allow this to become the one platform that's going to take all your time and attention. So use it wisely to communicate with your ideal traveler. If your ideal traveler is a family or, let's just say, not someone heavenly involved in business, then maybe Facebook and Instagram are the platforms of choice. Likewise, if your ideal traveler is that busy executive looking for someone to help them plan their travel for personal trips and maybe business as well then LinkedIn might be a better place to be on social media. Be wise about your choices and how you use this very, very powerful tool called social media media. But let's face it, the chances are good that TikTok is not your preferred communication channel. If your ideal traveler is a senior with grandchildren, you don't have to be everywhere, just be where your ideal traveler is.
Speaker 1:Two more points on social media. Social media is whichever platforms you choose. Inside social media, it does become a big black hole and it can suck up a lot of your time. So schedule when and for how long you're going to spend working on social media at any particular time. Very few business people that I know have a steady stream of prospects specifically and only from social media. It's more of a place where you can be visible. In my opinion, social media is not the place to post deals and content about how do you save money on travel or I have the lowest prices for trips to Cancun. It is not a good idea to base your business on having the lowest prices in town. Let Walmart do that. They do it, they do it well and they can do it because they're huge. All right, so let Walmart do that and you sell yourself and the service that you provide.
Speaker 1:We'll talk more about that. We'll talk about content later on, but suffice it to say post content that adds value to the reader. Okay, practical action for social media. Here we go. This is what you need to do to make social media part of your marketing plan. Decide if you want to use social media, schedule it and do it. Number one decide which social media platform or two that you want to be a part of and you're going to work on. You're going to put your business out there on. Create your business pages on those social platforms, create your profile on those social platforms and make it robust.
Speaker 1:Schedule when you're going to post content on your marketing calendar. In other words, I'm going to post on my social media platform on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Sunday evenings, whatever it is, just make sure you put it on your calendar and then be consistent. Consistency is just really a big key to using social media well. And, finally, schedule the time that you're going to work on it. As I said, schedule the time you're going to post stuff, but the time that you're going to work on it. As I said, schedule the time you're going to post stuff, but schedule the time you're going to work on it. You might work on Thursday mornings on social media content twice a month and on that morning, from you know 7 until noon, you're going to write content and put it all together and get all the graphics and do everything you need to do so that, when it comes time to post stuff, all you have to do is grab something out of the library and put it on your social media platform. Okay, schedule the time that you are going to spend and work on social media.
Speaker 1:Personal observation is the next platform on my list for us to talk about today. Personal observation is you getting up and getting out in the world and interacting with the people that you find when you get there, so that, again, they will know you and the business that you're in. It is a great way to start a conversation that's going to lead to a planning engagement, to a place where you're planning a trip for somebody in the future, and it may not be too far in the future. Now you can't stand on the corner with a big sign that says best travel planning in town and expect to create clients. You can't, however, go and be present where your ideal traveler is present. You can also go and do what you normally do, but be aware of the people you're around, and always, always, always wind up talking about your business somehow.
Speaker 1:How Well? Somebody's going to say what are you doing? Nowadays, john? You need to know exactly how to answer that. Here's what I like to use. It's called for lack of a better title, it's called an elevator talk, but here's how it works. Somebody says gee, morris, what are you doing today? I'm going to say, well, I help people plan their best vacation ever, and all they have to do is show up and have fun. I'm going to handle all the details and any problems that come up. That's it. That's what I'm going to say If I were in your shoes and I were a travel advisor today. That's what I would say. It's short, sweet, to the point, answers the question and it just begs for that follow-up. It begs for them to say that's great, how do you do that? And then you begin to talk about some of the details. But let's jump right into the practical stuff. Okay, these are the things you need to do to start using personal observation to attract more people in your business.
Speaker 1:Number one create your elevator talk. Short, sweet answers to their question and, as I said, it leaves them wanting to know more. It leaves them asking that secondary question. When you do that, they will ask questions and you'll ask for an appointment to discuss the details. All right, gee, I help people plan the best vacation ever. All they do is show up and have fun. Details, right, gee, morris, that's great. How do you do that? Because I'm planning a trip with my family right now, for we're going to go to and it's going to be. You know, man, I would love to help you with your trip to Rome, but this is probably not the best time and place to do that. Are you free to have a Zoom conversation later this week?
Speaker 1:It all starts with having that elevator talk, the talk that you like, and only you can develop it. Only you can develop those one or two sentences. Use anything that I've shared with you, but remember short, concise, answer the question. We're not being, you know, dumb here or stupid. We're going to answer the question. I help people plan the best vacation they ever had. That's what I do. You're not trying to play a game here. Short, concise, answer the question to the point, but make it such that it begs them to ask the follow-up question. Okay, hey, pardon the interruption, but I have an announcement for you about a free opportunity that's going to allow you to learn more about how to increase your revenue and have more time to enjoy it.
Speaker 1:I'm hosting a free summit on February 26th and 27th, filled with business experts to help you build your business so that you can reach your vision that you have for your success. Cindy Miner is going to join us to share the top things that make travel agents successful. Elise Enriquez will teach you how to use systems to help you get more things done more efficiently. Marilyn Jenkins is going to teach you about branding and using your Google profile, while Eli Delaney golly, gee, eli's the creator of the Rockstar follow-up system and he's going to teach you about how to make sure that you don't forget to follow up on all those opportunities that are out there. And the great Tim Fitzpatrick from Rialto Marketing is going to teach you how to build your marketing plan, and just so much more. But look, speaking of more, david Visco is going to be with us. David is an author, a consultant and, in his own words, a profit acceleration strategist. That's exactly what we need to find ways to increase your revenue and have more time to enjoy it. And, by the way, david and his wife, barbara own a travel agency, so he's got some experience from all different kinds of businesses to help you. And yeah, by the way, I'm going to be teaching you how to sell without being salesy, and we're going to talk about the clarity principle in your business.
Speaker 1:So, wrapping up the summit at 2 pm Central Time on the 27th. Wrapping it up is Dr Randy Marshall. Randy's a dear friend of mine and a mentor. He's going to share with you the secret to mental health. For business owners like ourselves, it is the most practical and useful concept I have ever learned in my entire career. This one thing seriously changed my life. Here's the deal it's all free. All you have to do is register and you can join the summit for these 10 live presentations. But hey look, if you can't join live, that's okay. The summit's going to be recorded and if you register, you'll have access to those presentations for 14 days.
Speaker 1:So right now, join the VIP waiting list to be sure that you're one of the first to know when registration is open. Here's the URL to join the waiting list, to be sure that you're one of the first to know when registration is open. Here's the URL to join the waiting list. And I apologize, it's a bit cumbersome, so I'll repeat it. But here we go. You ready? H-t-t-p-s colon slash slash Ross. Hyphen Morris. Hyphen Sims dot mykajabicom slash soon. I'll do it again. Here we go https. Colon slash slash r-o-s-s hyphen m-o-r-r-i-s hyphen s-i-m-s dot mykajabi, which is m-y-k-a-J-A-B-I dot com slash soon S-O-O-N. That's it. If you'll go there and just put your name on the waiting list, then we'll let you know as soon as registration opens and you can get in and reserve your seat. You'll get a notice from me. It's going to come around the 1st of February that registration is going to be open and then you can register and save your seat for the free summit. Y'all. I just I can't wait to kick this thing off and I look forward to seeing you there. So right now, right now, just while we're stopped, please join that VIP waiting list. I'll see you at the summit. For right now, let's get back to the show.
Speaker 1:Secondly, put time on your calendar to get out and go do some prospecting, to go out and meet people. Prospecting's a heavy word. What I'm saying is schedule time to go out and meet new people. Weave it into your daily routine. A friend of mine wrote a book called Always Be Prospecting. In fact, it said prospect like you breathe, because we're always looking for somebody else that might want you can talk about your business and wind up discussing a particular trip.
Speaker 1:And if you're open to the conversation and you got to be able to be out there and be open to the conversation what do you do? Where you are around people? What can you do? Well, let's see. You could go to the gym. Treadmill at home is covered in dirty clothes and everything else. Gym Treadmill at home is covered in dirty clothes and everything else, but you could plan time to go to the gym three days a week and make a commitment to talk to at least one person there about travel. It may be other members of the gym or it could be the staff. It could be somebody meeting the parking lot that's going there for a completely different reason. Your heart and your business will thank you if you go to the gym.
Speaker 1:I promise you could go out to get a cup of coffee a couple of times a week. There are prospective travelers standing in line waiting on their coffee. Make it during the busiest time of the day. Talk to at least one person and get some contact information. I know other folks go to the local breakfast place and there are business people in there that grab a breakfast. In fact, there are local business people who get together to plan their breakfast and you might be able to get involved in their conversation.
Speaker 1:When you go anywhere, you have an opportunity to stand in line when that happens. You've got a prospect in front of you and a prospect behind you if you'll start a conversation, if you stand there looking at your phone with your head down and you're not open to a conversation, then you're never going to get anywhere with this. But you've got to be open to the conversation. How about community meetings or church meetings or school or PTA or Little League? Heck, anywhere you go, there are people there Talk about your business. Let's not prejudge anybody. Just get a conversation started. Get a conversation started and somewhere or another they're going to ask you what you do. Or you can say I just got back from a trip on something when were you going on your next vacation?
Speaker 1:All right, let's summarize this one real quick Decide, schedule it and do it. We're getting practical here. Here are the two most important things for you to do about personal observation. Number one get your elevator talk just the way you like it and practice it. Practice it alone, but, most importantly, get out there then and practice it in the real world with real people. Look, just go do it. If it works the first time, great. If it doesn't work because something didn't sound right or feel right, then make some adjustments and go do it again, but get out there and do it with your elevator. Talk last minute and say go do it again, but get out there and do it with your elevator talk. Number two put some time on your calendar to make sure you get out and go meet people and do some personal observation. But you can't just observe. You got to start conversations for this system to work. You can do this. It really is easy once you start doing it and it can be a heck of a lot of fun. You meet some really fun people this way.
Speaker 1:Email marketing comes to mind next and you need to decide if you want to create this marketing system or not. It really is pretty easy with all the systems out there that you can use. Basically, email marketing is just collecting email addresses and sending emails to those people on your list. The challenge comes into play when you find it would be great to automate some of that work and you need to monitor who you're sending it to such that they don't complain and you wind up with a potential six-figure settlement. Okay, but here's the good news that doesn't happen a lot, and if you use an email marketing system to lessen the risk, then it probably won't ever happen. How do you do that? Well, let's get practical so you can decide, schedule the time to do it and then get out there and make it happen.
Speaker 1:These are the things you need to do to use email marketing. These are the things you need to do to use email marketing, and it is probably what's been said to be. The most important thing that you can do in your business is to create a really good email list and then use it. All right, so ready, here we go. Write down the answers, write down the steps. In other words, first of all, collect emails from everything you do. You can go to my website, morrissimscom, and if you're on there for a few minutes, you'll see something pop up that says, hey, join our email list, Give us your name and your email address. Do that, please, and you'll see how my email system works, because once you do that, then you're going to get four audio programs that talk about how to make more money and have more time to use the money that you make. All right.
Speaker 1:Number two decide on an email marketing platform. There are a zillion of them out there Kajabi, mailchimp, mailerlite, constant Contact, convertkit, aweber and probably 100 more. Just get out there and find out the one that you want. Most of them have free starting points with a majority of their features involved, and when you get into the thousands of emails that you're sending it to, then you're certainly going to have to pay Everybody has a different number but they usually let you in for free until your email list gets too large. All right, so go, decide on the platform that you want to use Schedule time to work on that project.
Speaker 1:Schedule time to work on your email marketing project and learn from your email marketing system. They've got videos on there. They've got stuff where you can learn how to use not only their system, but how and why you approach people and what you can do to build your email list and get out there and do this. So schedule some time to work on the project and then get into your email system that you chose and learn from it. Just do it. Create the content, the text of the email and put it in the system and press send. Just do it. It's going to make all the difference in the world. It really is a great system. All the platforms provide training and you just have to do it. You got to check it out and take the time to do that. Google and watch videos on YouTube about email marketing and go through the training and the platform that you've chosen on YouTube about email marketing and go through the training and the platform that you've chosen. It's going to require a few hours, plus some sessions, to actually work with it, to get ready and to get ready to get ready, if you will, and to actually start sending email, but it probably is worth the investment.
Speaker 1:Event marketing is the next one and it goes into the whole idea of going to events and talking about your business. I think this one's a no-brainer to do this. Four or six events a year and it can bring you some really great, great, great travelers. So back to your ideal traveler who is your ideal traveler and what events might they want to go to? Or what events do they sponsor or work with? Choose the ones you like and then get over there and get involved.
Speaker 1:Once you get over there and you set up a booth, you have attractive decor and you capture email addresses and you strike up conversations with people, just as you would if you were out doing personal observation prospecting. You'd be surprised what you can find. Your first objective is to capture your email addresses. Your next objective is to have a conversation with people about travel. You could raffle off a gift basket or a bottle of good wine. Just enter your address here and we'll choose you know, the top five people to get one of these fine bottles of wine. Whatever the case, you can do that and attract people to get one of these fine bottles of wine. Whatever the case, you can do that and attract people to your event, to your booth at the event, and then get an email and be able to go from there to build a relationship.
Speaker 1:Now, practically, what does all that mean? What do you need to decide and then schedule and then do? Well, here's the practical list of things you need to do to implement events in your plan. Step one is to find the events. You can Google events in your town Forney, texas, events press Google and it's amazing what's going to come back. You're going to be surprised at how many events are out there and how many of them are close to you and may include people that you would consider a part of your ideal traveler group. So, find some events and decide on two or three that you're going to do this year. Okay, choose two or three and get your feet wet and get out there.
Speaker 1:Step two is to find out what you need to do to participate in the event and what equipment you'll need to make it happen. It may be a table and a chair. Other places may require that you have a tent or something along those lines, a booth of some kind. Others will provide that kind of thing for you for a fee. Step three is to decide on how you're going to set up that space and decorate it to grab attention and how you plan to interact with people when they come by. It's like sitting behind a table is probably not the best body language to engage people in conversation, but if you're standing there with something in your hand that looks interesting, that might be a reason for them to at least stop long enough to look at it and you can introduce yourself and say hi, I'm Morris Sims with ABC Travel.
Speaker 1:What's your next vacation going to be? There you go, have your system established for what you're going to do to get somebody to share their email address. Maybe it's a raffle, maybe we'd like to send you some information about wherever you want to travel, but I need to know where that is and get your email address and your name, then schedule it on your calendar and just do it. Okay, on Tuesday morning, I'm going to spend two hours finding events that I might want to participate in and find out what it takes to be able to do that. Next week, on Tuesday morning, I'm going to work on, you know, building my event booth, or whatever the case may be, but get something going and just do it. Decide, schedule it and do it okay.
Speaker 1:Somebody said something about a website earlier, but look, you do not have to have a website to be a great travel agent. However, it certainly can't hurt anything. It can just take a lot of your time and your money. Now, for the most part, you don't have to pay thousands of dollars to have somebody create a website for you. Use a system that provides an option to build your own website or your own set of landing pages, because that's really what a website is. Among all the many things you get with Travify, you get the ability to build your own landing pages, and then you can go from there. The same is true if you use Kajabi, as well as a whole bunch of other systems that are out there. Once again, you can Google it and find it.
Speaker 1:Your website is one way you can stay visible and people can know you, but it's rarely going to bring a client to your doorstep. It's a great way to stay visible and have a place to send people when they inquire about you and about your business, but it's not something to take a week of your time just to work on that. When you decide to start working on it, maybe it's something you do over a few weekends. Just don't get caught in the black hole of trying to become a web designer when you really want to be a travel agent. Okay, practically, how do you make this happen? How do you do it? Well, from here, it's one step Decide on the platform you'd like to use and then use their system to design and build your website.
Speaker 1:Decide, schedule and do it. If you use Travify, there's a system inside Travify that will allow you to build and implement landing pages, and a website is just a string of landing pages hooked together, so you can do that from there. Decide if that's what you want to do that's great. Schedule time to do it and then do it. You can do this. It's going to work, and that about does it. You can take each piece of what we're talking about and, for each piece, decide, schedule, the action that you need to take to make it happen, and then do it.
Speaker 1:This is about implementation, and this is how you implement the marketing plan section of your strategic action plan. It is best to have it documented, in other words, have a written document plan or a document plan in your word processor on your computer. But that plan is the sections that we talked about earlier, it's the internet marketing, it's the personal observation, it's the events, it's all of those things. That's your marketing plan, and if you have that plan to refer to, then you'll know where your time boundaries are, as to how much time you really want to spend with it and, most importantly, you're going to have a clear understanding of your success, what success is going to be. So decide who your ideal traveler is, choose the platforms you want to use to communicate with them, use a calendar to schedule the time that you plan to spend on each part of your marketing plan and document it all in writing so that you know where you are and what you're doing, and what you've accomplished and what you need to accomplish.
Speaker 1:Last topic what do you do about writing on all these platforms? In other words, what content? What are you going to say? You're communicating with your ideal traveler, what are you going to tell them? What are you going to write about. Well, you write about things that are exciting to you your last trip, the trip you're going on next summer. Don't write about discounts or best prices or special offers or anything about price. Leave price marketing to the commodity people. You focus on showing yourself as the highly credible travel advisor that you are the expert in your area, the expert in your area of specialty, the person who's going to take all their problems, cares and concerns away and help them to have the best trip they have ever had in their entire life.
Speaker 1:Basically, your post should show off your knowledge and add value to your readers. Here's some topics that I know I found useful from time to time. Things like never travel to Europe without these 10 things Five things you never take with you when you're traveling internationally. Pack your personal items I don't know if you can find secret deodorant in Brazil when you book your airfare. Remember these four things. Why is Rome the number one travel destination in 2025? What we did on our summer vacation you can come up with better stuff than I've got here but how to have more fun without spending more money? And the list could go on and on and on. But again, see, it's all topics that have to do with how I'm going to help the traveler have a better experience.
Speaker 1:Now, the last part of this, the last section on this whole thing, is this If you can afford to get help, please do so. I'm not necessarily talking about hiring a marketing consultant, but maybe you start off with a virtual assistant who can write and do graphics for your social media posts. Maybe they work a couple hours a week at less than 20 bucks an hour. If you could do more than that, you know you got some things going on. If you can do more than hop on a train and get moving, go do it. You know, I mean, if you can do it and you want to do it yourself, go. Have a great time doing it. Just remember your objective is to be a travel agent, not to be a social media person. Right when I hired my producer to handle the podcast and social media for my business, I had no idea how I was going to pay her for more than a month, maybe two. With her help, we've grown our podcast and our business such that now I'm thinking about hiring a second person for our team.
Speaker 1:You can do this. Go back to your notes and make notes on what you want to do. My friend calls this taking notes on your notes. But please don't stop now. Make some things happen. You can do this. Go back through and pick out just the practical action steps and make it happen. But choose just one thing to start with. Choose just one thing to start with. Choose just one thing to start with. Eat this elephant one bite at a time and don't get overwhelmed by it, because it's not something to get overwhelmed by. It's something to have fun with. You're going to be attracting people to your business and planning trips for them and seeing your business grow. My best wishes. I know you're going to do great things and I can't wait to hear more from you, to tell me about your wins and what's going right and what we can do to help you. In other words, have a great day, enjoy your business, enjoy your time. I'll see you next time. My name is Morris Sims. You.